TikTok stunt leads to Long Island teen getting trapped on 59th Street Bridge, authorities say

A 16-year-old boy from Lynbrook got trapped for hours Monday inside a 59th Street Bridge pillar and had to be rescued by the FDNY after a TikTok-making stunt gone wrong, according to the authorities.

After the rescue, the boy was hospitalized with hypothermia, having spent roughly seven hours in a hole after he fell down a bridge pillar as a friend, also from Nassau County, recorded the stunt from above before leaving, Lynbrook Police Chief Brian Paladino told Newsday.

Neither teen’s name was disclosed.

It took 75 FDNY personnel to extricate the trapped teen, down 50 feet in a buttress of the lower level of the bridge’s Queens side, which links the borough with Manhattan, according to the FDNY.

The rescue involved high-angle equipment and ropes.

The authorities first heard, from an anonymous female caller about 5:15 p.m., that her friend might be hurt, Paladino said, but the caller didn’t know where her friend was.

Lynbrook police went to the home of the teen, where his mother said he was with friends. Then, hours later, someone sent the video, which was posted on Tik Tok, Instagram, or both. The video does not depict the fall but shows someone in a hole making noises. The sender said it was filmed at the 59th Street Bridge, formally known as the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge.

The police got in contact with the teen involved with the video production, picked him up and together with his dad drove to the bridge, where the teen pointed out the pillar down which his friend had fallen.

The teen hadn't initially alerted the authorities because he was worried about the youths getting in trouble, Paladino said.

He said the boy who became trapped likes to do urban exploring and "finding cool things to do."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.